Background

In the course of my career, I have fortunately been exposed to many different types of environment, and I thought I would share some of my experiences and opinions on those environments as I currently view them. My first job, working with my father, was at a software development company that provided Off-The-Shelf solutions to the food, pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods market. The company was an interesting mix of corporate and consultancy as most of the software was the kind of thing that could be pre-packaged and sold, but most of the development work was on the customisation of that software to integrate with the client’s existing ERP and / or financial systems. For me, this was good experience as I learned quite a lot of the craft of software development in an environment that was quite forgiving, but I was also very limited on the technologies I could use.

This is a post that has been floating around in my head for a while, caused by many decisions I have seen in the businesses in which I have worked (mostly with regard to software purchases, but the idea can be generalised). I will start with defining the idea of a devil’s advocate and then move on to where I think it has a place in the modern business world. In my view the idea is also closely related to that of the 10th man rule (made famous by World War Z).